Instructions for the past
by HushBugger
Summary: The ability to go back. The resolve to change fate. With a power like that, don't you have a responsibility to do the right thing? Frisk has world improvement plans, and gets some friendly advice.


" _Many scientists believe that another world is watching us this moment. We once laughed at the horseless carriage, the aeroplane, the telephone, the electric light, vitamins, radio, and even television! And now some of us laugh at outer space._ " Dramatic music filled the room. " _God help us… in the future._ " The words "The End" appeared on the screen.

"What a masterpiece," Sans said. "I can't believe you never watched it before."

Frisk shrugged. "There's a lot to go through."

"So what have you been up to since you moved out, anyway?" He glanced at a pile of paper next to the couch. "I see you have a lot of reading material." He took a sheet from the top of the pile. "'The effect of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs on cognitive outcome in Alzheimer's disease?' That's, uh. That's pretty heavy stuff."

Frisk felt a pang of guilt, and then forced a neutral expression. "I'm using it for memory training. You know, reading a long piece of text and then writing it down again later." Technically true.

"Okay, let me take a look at what you're using." He started leafing through the pile. "More medical papers. Physics research. An analysis of last year's failed moon landing. A list of earthquakes?" He went back and looked at the dates. "And all of this is from after the barrier broke."

Frisk said nothing.

"Do you get why this makes me a little uncomfortable?"

"If you have some sort of special power," Frisk whispered, "isn't it your responsibility to do the right thing?"

His grin didn't waver, but Sans gave a long stare. "Is that something I told you?"

Frisk nodded.

"Welp. Gotta be careful what you ask for, I guess." He sighed. "Look. None of that has to do with you. You don't have to try to fix it."

"But I _can_. I can do so much, I think it would be wrong not to. I can help everyone."

"And you'd be sending everyone back. Rewinding history. Years of progress, gone. It's one thing to roll back the underground a few hours, but you're talking about erasing years of billions of people here."

Frisk fidgeted. "I. I don't know if I can help it. I go back when I die. I think I'd go all the way back to when I fell."

"Ah. I see. Yeah, that makes it a bit more complicated. But you're not, like, planning on dying soon, right? You're just getting an early start?"

"I just want to be prepared."

"Alright. That's a relief. I, uh, guess we might as well make the best of it, if it's going to happen anyway. Makes the medical stuff even more important."

"Yes. The longer I live, the longer the world goes on."

"You better look both ways before crossing the street, alright?" Sans chuckled. "Who knows. Maybe after a few times someone'll figure out immortality and you never have to do it again."

"I'm sorry for not telling you. I didn't know how you would react."

"It's a good thing you did tell me, because I have a better way. More reliable, and less work, too. My lab back in Snowdin is a sort of fixed point, so anything you store in there gets to stay."

"Huh. You have a secret lab? What's next, a machine to see the future?"

"I have one of those on my wall. It tells me what time it's going to be twenty-four hours from now." Sans winked.

Frisk snorted. "So we just put a hard drive in your lab, and when I go back, it'll still be there?"

"Yeah, pretty much. But I'll do some extra setup to warn me. Your own memory probably can't even travel back that far."

"It can't?"

"Nope. I was part of a research team, back in the day. Jumping back more than a few days leaves almost nothing of the future. We couldn't test it directly, so I'm not completely sure, but I think you'll forget. I'll explain how we figured that one out sometime. It was pretty clever."

"But…" Frisk hesitated. "If I wouldn't remember anything, then maybe it happened before? Do you think this is the first time?"

"I left a picture from the surface in the lab. There wasn't anything new in there before, so it's the first time we made it that far, at least."

Frisk leaned back, relieved. "Thank you so much. This changes everything."

"Hey, no problem. But, uh, if you have any other weird problems, please tell someone. You don't have to deal with them alone."

"Okay," Frisk said. "I will."


End file.
